Prosecutors in Australia have ended their high-profile legal action against a former government staffer accused of raping a colleague inside Parliament House, saying that a retrial would pose a significant and unacceptable risk to the woman's life.
The Australian Capital Territory ACT director of public prosecutions, Shane Drumgold, told reporters Friday that the risk to Brittany Higgins' mental health must be put ahead of the need for a resolution in the case.
Higgins, a former federal government staffer, alleges that she was raped by former colleague Bruce Lehrmann in the office of Australia's defense minister in 2019.
Lehrmann pleaded not guilty to sexual intercourse without consent, and maintains that he has never engaged in intercourse with Higgins, consensual or otherwise.
The charge has been dropped.
Drumgold said he had received compelling evidence from two independent medical experts that the ongoing trauma associated with the prosecution presents a significant and unacceptable risk to Higgins' life.
He said that the evidence shows that this is not limited to the harm of giving evidence in a witness box.
The case went to trial in Canberra in October, but the judge ordered a retrial due to jury misconduct. The trial was scheduled to take place in February 2023.
Drumgold told reporters Friday that a retrial was no longer in the public interest.
This has left me no option but to file a notice declining to proceed with the retrial of this matter, which I did this morning. Drumgold said that this brings the prosecution to an end.
According to a statement from her friend Emma Webster on Friday, Higgins is currently in hospital.
Webster stated that the last couple of years have been difficult and unrelenting. Brittany is very grateful for all the support she received from our mental health care workers. In the original trial, the judge dismissed the 12-member jury deliberation of the rape verdict after it was revealed that a juror had researched the allegations and taken that information into the jury room.
In the year 2019, Higgins claimed that Lehrmann had raped her after the two shared a taxi to Parliament House after a night out with colleagues in the capital.
Higgins approached police soon after the incident, but didn't make a formal complaint, citing fears that taking the matter further could damage her career.
She spoke to media in 2021 and the case made headlines, not only because of the location of the alleged attack, but because of Higgins's claims that she had been discouraged from coming forward to avoid political fallout before the 2019 election.
Lehrmann was arrested and charged last year, but the trial was delayed due to fears that publicity around the case meant he wouldn't get a fair hearing.